Report: Amazon’s next Kindle Paperwhite will pick up a 300 PPI screen

Breaking news: new version of product to improve on current version of product.

Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX tablets have already broken the 300 PPI barrier, but the sharpest of its E Ink readers sits at a much lower 212 PPI. According to a report from TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino, that may be about to change—Amazon is apparently working on a new version of its backlit Kindle Paperwhite with a 300 PPI display of an unspecified size and resolution. Since E Ink screens are meant to mimic the printed page, a sharper screen would bring the e-reader that much closer to the experience of reading an actual book.

While the new e-reader is still apparently "several months away," we know a little more about its other planned features. On the hardware side, Amazon will reportedly be adding an ambient light sensor to adjust the device's frontlight based on the light in the room you're in, and hardware buttons for page turning will be making a return (the current Paperwhite relies on touch input for page turning). On the software side, the device's UI will of course be upscaled to take advantage of the high-density screen, and Amazon will be introducing some new fonts and other tweaks to improve the Kindle's typography. Finally, the new Paperwhite's design will be tweaked to bring it more in line with that of the newest Fire tablets.

Amazon isn't the first to bring a high-density e-reader to market. Kobo's Aura HD has a 265 PPI, 6.8-inch screen and has been out since May, though Kobo is a bigger presence in its home country of Canada than it is in the US. (The Aura HD was supposedly a limited-edition product, but it's still on sale for $170 six months later so it's clearly not that limited.) The newest Paperwhite will however be the first E Ink reader of this density with access to Amazon's gigantic e-book library and the Kindle brand, two potent weapons in the battle for e-book market supremacy.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.